The Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013 was signed on August 09, allowing federal student loan interest rates to reflect financial markets.  So what does this mean for student loan borrowers?

If you borrow a student loan on or after July 01, 2013 through June 30, 2014, your interest rate will be fixed at the rate established in June 2013.  Currently, interest rates for graduate students are 5.41% for Direct Unsubsidized loans and 6.41% for Direct Graduate Plus loans.  These rates are lower than the 6.8% and 7.9% rates of previous years.  Each June new rates will be determined for the upcoming academic year’s loans, so keep an eye out for those updates.

Do you know what your loan history and corresponding interest rates are?  We recommend students check their loan history periodically at www.nslds.ed.gov to stay within conservative borrowing practices.

…if you haven’t done so already!  We need this before we can award any federal student aid to you.  You can complete your FAFSA online at www.fafsa.ed.gov-make sure you include the Stetson Law school code: E00342.

If you have already completed your FAFSA, have you checked your student account in Banner Web?  This is where you can view your award, accept or decline your aid, and determine if you have any outstanding requirements that need to be completed.  Outstanding requirements may include your loan entrance counseling and your master promissory notes (one mpn for the Direct Unsubsidized Stafford loan and another mpn for the Direct Graduate Plus loan).

So you’ve done all of the above?  Fantastic!  Any loan funding you have chosen to borrow will disburse onto your student account August 14th.  This money will cover tuition, fees, and any other charges that have been posted to your account by our Business Office.  If you have borrowed living expense money, too, you’ll be able to pick up your refund check on August 23rd after 1:00 pm in the Business Office.

We hope you enjoy the rest of your summer and we’ll see you in the fall!

While the sequester does not currently impact the amount loaned to student borrowers, it does effect the origination fee of Direct Unsubsidized Stafford and Direct Graduate Plus loans.  The origination fee is a percentage of funds deducted from the loan before disbursement.  Borrowers can now expect to see 1.051% origination fees on Direct Unsubsidized Stafford loans and 4.204% origination fees on Direct Graduate Plus loans.  Previously these fees were 1% and 4%.

Loans borrowed for the Summer 2013 semester and going forward will carry the increased fees.  The Department of Education plans to notify via email those borrowers who are affected by this change, but please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

The deadline for spring scholarship applications for current students is April 1 at 5:00 p.m.; less than two weeks away!  Make sure you check the criteria for each scholarship (listed at the top of our scholarship page) to see which opportunities you could apply for and what we’ll need from you.

We will email you in mid-April to let you know if you have or have not been selected to receive a scholarship.

Good luck!

Take some time this weekend to work on your Public Service Scholarship application which is due Monday, March 11 at 5:00 pm in the Office of Admissions and Student Financial Planning.  The scholarship recipient will be a student entering their final year of law school and will receive money to cover full tuition for their final year.

Good luck!

Our Endowed/Continuing Student scholarship application is only open until October 31 at 4:30 pm!  Have you applied yet?

Make sure you submit your standard essay, any additional essay related to any specific scholarship as required, and your resume along with your application.  We will need to receive all of these elements before the deadline.  For most of these scholarships, recipients will get their award for the Spring 2013 semester.

Note: students who have already received a full- or half-tuition scholarship are not eligible to apply.

Good luck!

This past week, Federal Student Aid launched it’s new website.  It is much more streamlined and is packed full of good information, interactive tools and FAQ’s to help students understand more about what it means to borrow Financial aid. 

Go to www.studentaid.ed.gov to check this all out!! 

Also they have launched many social media properties on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter in order to offer students, parents and borrorwers another avenue of communication to learn and understand the student aid process.  Be sure to check them out!

If you have accepted your financial aid already and will be expecting to receive a refund check for living expenses for your fall 2012 semester, you can expect to pick up your check from the BUSINESS OFFICE after 12pm on August 17th!!!

If you are an admitted student for the fall 2012 semester, there are a few things to keep in mind that you will need to do BEFORE August 1st, if you haven’t already:

1.  Fill out your FAFSA!  do this online at www.fafsa.ed.gov  Stetson COL’s school code is E00342. 

2.  Log on to your banner web account:  Accept the Terms and Conditions for Receiving Financial aid and accept, decline or partially accept your loans!
***Be sure to accept the lowest interest rate loan first: Unsubsidized Stafford loan is a 6.8% interest rate and 1% origination fee.  Then accept only WHAT YOU NEED of the higher interest rate loan: the Graduate Plus at 7.9% and 4% origination fee.***

3.  Do you Loan Entrance Counseling and sign your Master Promissory Note(s) online.  You will sign TWO MPN’s if you are taking both Stafford and Graduate Plus loans out. 

Please do this all as soon as you can before August 1st to ensure that your financial aid pays out onto your account in a timely manner. 

Sallie Mae, the nation’s No. 1 financial services company specializing in education, announced a new fixed interest rate option on its private education loans for academic year 2012-13. The new fixed interest rates, available to undergraduate and graduate students at degree-granting institutions on May 21, will start at 5.75 percent with no origination fees. Sallie Mae will continue to offer variable rate private education loans at rates starting at 2.25 percent for students at degree-granting institutions, with no origination fees.